‘David Letterman’ Writer Joe Toplyn & ‘EMPIRE’ Composer Fil Eisler

Joe Toplyn has written and produced comedy/talk shows for over fifteen years.

He began his television career on the writing staff of Late Night with David Letterman, where he won four Emmy awards. He went on to become co-head writer of The Tonight Show with Jay Leno and head writer ofLate Show with David Letterman.

His other TV writing credits include the sketch show In Living Color and the comedic detective show Monk. He is the author of the book Comedy Writing for Late-Night TV , the first book ever written about the subject. Joe Toplyn reveals his proven methods of writing for late-night television in this one-of-a-kind insider’s guide.

Fil Eisler is a composer and multi-instrumentalist, known for his film noir-inspired compositions created for Fox’s hottest new show, “Empire,” ABC’s hit drama series, “Revenge,” and Showtime’s Emmy-winning “Shameless.”

Fil is also composing the music for Lifetime’s highly anticipated new scripted series, “UnReal” – (http://www.ew.com/article/2015/01/09/unreal-trailer). Fil conducts a live orchestra each week for both “Empire” and “Revenge.” Variety described his music as “smoky, elaborate film noir-inspired compositions,” while Beatweek Magazine praised Fil for making “beautiful music” that “almost acts as another character further enveloping the audience in its grasp.”

While known for his work in TV and film, the Czech-born and English-raised composer started his career as a touring musician. He has traveled, recorded and written with artists, producers and composers as diverse as Robbie Williams, Ryan Adams, Marco Beltrami, Dave Stewart, Imogen Heap, Jesse Malin, Kim Caldwell, Kylie Minogue, Brian May, Holly Johnson, and many others. Fil’s song “Superblind” appears on Williams’ multi-platinum album – Reality Killed the Video Star, which was produced by Trevor Horn and based on Fil’s original production and orchestral arrangement.